How Alcohol Affects The Body

Alcohol affects the body in various different ways that can result in a good night or serious health problems. Knowing how alcohol affects the body is important, you don't want to put anything into your body without knowing the consequences. Drinking alcoholic beverages is a very popular pastime, especially among younger people, but knowledge of what it is doing to your body is not common knowledge.

Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows down your reaction times. This means that it slows down your central nervous system, and not as much information is being sent to your brain. In small quantities this lack of information means you feel more relaxed and ready to have a good time. In larger quantities alcohol begins to affect speech, reaction time and motor skills. This is one of the more well known ways that alcohol affects the body.

There are also ways that alcohol affects the body that are less well known. When you consume alcohol, it is absorbed by your stomach lining and intestines into your bloodstream, until the alcohol reaches your liver. Your liver then attempts to metabolize the alcohol, but it can only do so at a rate of about one beer an hour. Until all the alcohol is metabolized, it is affecting all of your organs. When alcohol is present in the stomach in excess quantity, the stomach does not produce enough digestive fluid, resulting in a lack of food being digested. Your lungs become more sensitive to temperature changes, leading to sinus congestion. Alcohol can also calcify tissue in the heart, making it impossible for your heart to pump enough blood to the rest of your body. This causes the heart to pump harder and harder until it can eventually give out. Alcohol can even affect the amount of testosterone that is being produced, resulting in infertility. These are some of the more extreme ways that alcohol affects the body.

These are all results of excessive drinking though. Alcohol affects the body in more negative ways when more of it is consumed. Moderate drinking has been shown to improve functionality of the circulatory system, proving that alcohol affects the body in positive ways as well. Moderate drinking is considered 2 drinks a day for men, and and 1 for women, assuming they have no illnesses. The more serious affects of alcohol won't take place as long as you are responsible about how much you drink.